Robert Louis Stevenson

Robert Louis Stevenson was born in 1850 in Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, into a family of serious Christians and famous engineers. His grandfather built lighthouses and this became a family tradition. Although Stevenson went to university to study engineering, when this was unsuccessful, he changed to law. However, he decided early in life to become a writer. He wrote some novels when he was in his twenties that made him immediately successful, including "Treasure Island" with the well-known pirate Long John Silver, as well as the famous short story, "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde." Stevenson was well-respected as a writer all his life and was financially successful, but he was often very ill and spent his last years travelling from one warm climate to another. This took him to the South Sea Islands, where he fought for the rights of the native people. He died in Samoa when he was only 44.

Articles by Robert Louis Stevenson

The Body Snatcher

IntermediateFiction

This Stevenson was the creator of the legendary Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, the dual personality which has become a part of the English language. This horror story is about a man who steal corpses from their graves or, worse, murders people to sell their bodies to scientists for research (2,500 words)

The Bottle Imp

IntermediateFiction

A classic horror story about a magical force that can give the owner of the bottle it lives in three wishes. At first, the hero welcomes the bottle imp because it can give him the money he needs to make a start in life, to attract a wonderful girl and live a comfortable life. But soon things start to go very wrong. (7,100 words)

Markheim

AdvancedFiction

Stevenson is best-known for his children’s novel, ‘Treasure Island’, as well as his novella, ‘The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde’, but this horror story concerns a young man making a deal with the Devil after he commits a dreadful crime. He can escape with the help of Satan or face the hangman (4,420 words).